Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c.

by Xavier Hommaire de Hell; Adèle Hommaire de Hell

A remarkable result of this whole system of quarantine and customs is as follows. Suppose two vessels start simultaneously from the Mediterranean, the one for Taganrok, the other for Odessa, and that the latter failing to obtain a cargo, shall quit Odessa after its fifteen days' quarantine, and sail for the Sea of Azof: there is every probability that after remaining at Taganrok long enough to take in its cargo, it will on its return still find the first vessel in the Kertch roads, waiting to complete the formalities required before it can enter the Sea of Azof. Such measures as these, would inevitably keep aloof from the ports of the Sea of Azof, and even from that of Kertch, every vessel that was sure of its cargo beforehand. It is needless to insist afresh in this place on the superiority of Theodosia, considered as a general entrepôt of the goods arriving in the Sea of Azof, and of those which might have flowed directly into its port through the Isthmus of Arabat.

As for the commercial resources belonging intrinsically to the town of Kertch, it is enough to look at its situation at the extremity of a long, depopulated, and sterile peninsula, and its distance from every route, whether political or commercial, to be assured that they must be quite futile. Seven years after the creation of its port, the annual customs' revenue had not risen above 1200 rubles. In 1840, the whole quantity of corn that had issued from the town of Kertch since its origin, whether directly or through the medium of its entrepôts, scarcely amounted to 5000 tchetverts, and the receipts of the custom-house for the same year were but 695,130. If from this sum we deduct 551,108, the amount of the excise on salt destined exclusively for Russian consumption, and a further considerable sum produced by other imposts, there will remain an exceedingly small amount to represent the nett commercial revenue. The port of Kertch has, therefore, by no means fulfilled the grand expectations so foolishly conceived of it; it has ruined the great city of Theodosia, robbed the Crimea of its commercial importance, cut off all chances of prosperity from the ports of the Sea of Azof, and crippled navigation; and all this without any profit worth speaking of to itself, and without the least prospect of ever rising above the low condition in which it is doomed to vegetate, both by its geographical situation, and the nature and configuration of the adjacent regions.

The results have not been much more satisfactory as regards the growth of the Russian mercantile navy. According to official reports, which we believe exaggerated, there were, in 1840, in the Sea of Azof, 323 vessels measuring about 26,000,000 of kilogrammes, and manned by 1517 individuals. If we recollect that the Sea of Azof is but a marsh, the greatest depth of which does not exceed fourteen mètres, that the crafts which ply in it, pursuing always the same invariable track, hardly require the simplest rudiments of nautical skill for their management, and that the navigation of the sea is usually interrupted during four or five months of the year, it will be easily conceived that the maritime advantages which may accrue to Russia, from the closing of the Sea of Azof, must be very insignificant, not to say quite illusory.

We have now to examine the manufacturing and agricultural resources of the Crimea, and the measures which have been taken by the imperial government to further them. The cultivation of the vine may be considered as at present the most important, if not the most productive branch of industry in the country. When Russia took possession of it, the vineyards were concentrated in the southern valleys of Soudak, Kobsel, Koze, and Toklouk, and in those of the Katch, the Alma, &c., on the northern slope of the Tauric chain. These vineyards which seem to have existed from very remote antiquity, were all in the plain, where they were subjected to continual irrigations after the system of the Greeks and Tatars. The consequence of this mode of culture was that the crops were extremely abundant, and the wine of a very poor quality.[79] After the Russian occupation, however, the business of vine-growing increased considerably in the northern valleys, which were soon frequented by the merchants of the interior, who were attracted both by the extraordinary cheapness of the produce, and by the facilities of transport. Thus the wines of the Crimea found their way into the interior of the empire, but they were chiefly used for mixing and adulteration; the small quantity that was sold in its original state was always of very bad quality, so that the peninsular wines were in very bad repute, and for a long while lost all chance of sale. This well-merited depreciation was such that even in our own day a merchant of eminence in Moscow or St. Petersburg would have thought it a serious disgrace to him to admit into his cellars a few bottles of Crimean wine.

Such was the state of the vine cultivation in the Crimea, when Count Voronzof was named governor-general of New Russia. Under his active and enterprising administration, a bold attempt was made to change the whole system of cultivation, so as to produce wines capable of competing advantageously with those of foreign countries.[80] The valleys, with their method of irrigation, were therefore abandoned, and the preference was given to the long strip of schistous and éboulement grounds which stretches along the seaside between Balaklava and Alouchta, on the southern coast. Count Voronzof set the example with his characteristic ardour; his first operations took place in 1826 at Aidaniel,[81] and six years afterwards he was the owner of 72,000 vine plants. The example of the governor-general was quickly followed, and in 1834, there were already 2,000,000 stocks in the country, from cuttings brought chiefly from the Rhenish and the French provinces.

When the vines were in full bearing, the next thing to be considered was to find a market for their produce; but here arose a great and unforeseen difficulty, and the brilliant expectations of the planters were soon miserably disappointed. In spite of the difficulties of the route, some merchants yielded to the earnest solicitations of the governor-general and his imitators, and arrived on the coast to purchase; but the demands of the proprietors were exorbitant; their first outlay had been very great, and their produce small, yet they were bent on realising at once the amount of their investments. They thought, too, that by setting a high price on their wines, they would secure their reputation; accordingly they fixed it at twenty to twenty-five rubles the vedro (0.1229 hectolitres), and immediately they lost all chance of sale.

The business prospered better in the valley of the Soudak, where the same modifications had been introduced into the culture of the vine. The hill wines were sold at the rate of twelve to fifteen rubles the vedro, and those of the plain at five and six. But this did not last long; in 1840 the wine growers of Soudak could no longer dispose of their stock, though they had reduced their prices to two and three rubles for the best qualities, and to one and one and a half for the lowland wines. As to the wine-growers of the southern coasts, they were very glad at that time if they could find purchasers at the rate of five or six rubles the vedro.

Several causes contributed to these unfortunate results. The southern coast, as we have already said, consists of a long narrow strip of argillaceous schist and detritus, with a very steep inclination, and overtopped throughout its length by high cliffs of jura limestone. In consequence of these topographical conditions, the heat is very great in summer; the soil, which is quite destitute of watercourses, dries rapidly, and the many ravines by which it is intersected, completely deprives it of any little moisture that may remain in it. The scarcity of rain augments these disadvantages, so that the vine plants procured from abroad degenerate rapidly; as the grapes cannot ripen before autumn, the wine loses much in quality; and, moreover, the quantity is far from abundant, in proportion to the extent of the ground. These circumstances, combined with those occasioned by the desire to exalt the wines of the Crimea in public opinion, inflame both the pretensions of the proprietors and the indifference of the merchants, who could never have disposed of the coast wine at the high prices asked for it. These were afterwards considerably diminished, but not sufficiently to produce any effect. Whatever be said to the contrary, it is certain that the wines of the southern Crimea can never sustain any sort of comparison with those of France or the Rhine; hence they continued to be held in low repute, and the merchants of the interior still found it more to their advantage to make their purchases in the northern valleys, which were easy of access, and where the wine was incomparably cheaper. In spite of all their efforts, therefore, the wine-growers of the southern coast could not find a market for their produce, and were obliged to consume the chief part of it themselves.

It may, perhaps, excite surprise that no attempt has been made to evade the difficulties of land-carriage by seeking outlets by sea, and procuring customers in the great maritime towns of Russia. But unluckily there exists between Russia and Greece an ancient treaty, which the tzars, for political considerations no doubt, persist in religiously observing, and by virtue of which Greek wines are received almost free of duty in the imperial ports. Whoever is aware of the prodigious quantity and incredible cheapness of the wines of the Archipelago, and of the great facilities they afford for effecting mixtures and adulterations, will easily conceive, that with such a competition to encounter, the sale of Crimean wines became absolutely impossible. If the culture of the vine in the Crimea was induced by encouragements on the part of the government, then the landowners were grossly duped. But, as we shall explain by and by, the ministry seem never to have looked favourably on this branch of industry, and the vine-growers have only their own extreme want of forethought to blame for all the disasters that have befallen them.

At Soudak, however, the mischief appears to us attributable solely to the misconduct of the authorities. We have already stated that the vintage speculations of Soudak were at first much more prosperous than those of the southern coast. The situation of the valley, which is of very easy access for northern traffic, and the decided preference of the German colonists for white wines, for many years kept the fine plain of Soldaya in a thriving if not an opulent condition. But unfortunately, that western part of the coast not being within the region which the governor-general and the great landowners had taken under their special protection, Soudak was completely abandoned to her own resources; her roads were left without repairs, and the local administration took no measures whatever for the preservation of order and the security of individuals. When I visited the coast in 1840, the roads of this district were in the most deplorable condition;[82] they were strewed with fragments of carts and casks; a German waggoner was killed in my presence by the breaking down of his waggon; thieving and pillage were the order of the day in the valley, and the proprietors could only preserve their chattels by keeping a close personal watch upon them day and night.